Reaching the shore in record time, Rafe helped Nicole onto the dock and nodded at a black sedan idling in the marina parking lot. “There’s our ride.” Sliding his fingers through hers, he drew her along with him. “We’ll pick up your stuff and head up the hill.”
“Jules is rockin’. I love speed. When I was young, my car had a governor on it.” She grinned. “No more.”
“We’ll have to go driving. See how good you are behind the wheel.”
She shook her head. “Later. I have plans.”
“Good to hear,” he said in an entirely different tone, thoughts of fast cars and driving eclipsed by the velvety resonance in her voice that seemed to reach out and touch him. “That way I won’t inconvenience you.” He beat back the worst of his wildness, took a small breath, and said, in a raspy whisper, “With some of my plans.”
At the flash of heat in his hooded eyes, the hair on the back of Nicole’s neck stood up, but every sex-deprived nerve in her body was immune to fear. “Lucky me,” she murmured.
Pulling her to a stop, Rafe spoke with an honesty unheard of for him in situations like this. “Lucky us, you mean,” he said softly, holding her gaze until she stopped breathing. And when she mutely nodded, he experienced a frighteningly wild happiness that would have brought a dead man back to life.
But a second later, his expression mirrored his shock, and understanding that they were both operating in the same clueless haze of mind-altering desire, Nicole suddenly dragged in a breath and grinned. “New territory, right? No maps. No GPS. Nada.”
“Fucking A.” He frowned, momentarily baffled before he sorted through the crazy mind fuck that had blown in with Nicole Parrish. “Look, if it’s all the same to you,” he said with empty politesse, “I’d prefer to file this us thing under lust.” He smiled. “That way it’s safe, familiar, nothing that’ll wreck the comfortable pattern of my life.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, dude.”
He did a double take. The women in his life were notoriously calculating, all after the same thing—marriage to a billionaire. He had no illusions.
“Don’t look so surprised. I’m on summer break. Lust is the reason I’m here.” Nicole lifted her chin as they reached the black Mercedes sedan and spoke in a deliberately disinterested tone. “Nice car. Armored.” She smiled up at him. “Looks like you bring all kinds of excitement with you.”
“Just a practicality,” he lied, grateful for her well-mannered change of subject. “I have too many attorneys. They hate problems.” Opening the back door, he waved her in. “Give Simon directions.”
Since Dominic’s apartment was practically on the water, it was only a few minutes before the car pulled up to the building entrance. Rafe held up his phone. “If you want company, I’ll come up with you. Otherwise I’m going to take care of some business.” He smiled. “Seeing how you and I are going to be busy for the foreseeable future.” His smile widened. “No mercy, no remorse. Should be fun.”
“Here’s hoping.” Grinning, Nicole held up crossed fingers. “Make your calls. I don’t need company.”
“Simon could come with you and carry—whatever.”
“Nah, I’m good. I travel light.”
Opening the car door, Rafe swung his legs aside and gave her ass a little pat as she eased past him and stepped out onto the pavement. “Don’t be gone long.”
There was something in his tone—a casual, boundless authority. Nicole turned back. “Or?”
He smiled and his voice shifted downward. “Or I’ll have to come up and get you.”
He was way the hell too good-looking and so totally sexy, she didn’t even need that soft, killer tone of voice to make her turn into a damp, aching mess. Shutting her eyes, she let the sweet pleasure melt through her body for a fraction of a second before she hauled herself back to reality.
He didn’t think he’d ever seen anything hotter. “You gonna make it?” His voice was whisper soft. “Maybe I should come with you.” Fuck you while you’re packing.
She sucked in a breath. “Tempting,” she murmured, as if she could read his mind, as if they were both on the same supercharged, X-rated wavelength. “But better not. Sometimes staff is around.”
“So?” Gently suggestive, a flash of heat in his amber eyes.
“So I’m not looking for an audience right now.” But she shuddered a little as a quivering warmth coiled deep inside her.